My Attempt at a Dual Purpose Heritage Flock

[Chipmunk Chicks]

Has anyone on here kept the SL hens to determine their laying rate?
I have been planning on doing this cross for the last two years I’ve been in med school and am just now able to execute it. Btw, I am so glad I found this thread.
I plan on buying NH’s from Whiskey gulch, FR, and a local breeder.
Delawares from Deer run, dawn ridge and MM.
I plan on primarily doing the SL and keeping Roos for meat and hens for laying. Very curious to see what the laying rate of this cross is.

I would love to find out, too! I'm not yet ready to execute, and I'm still working out what breeds I might use, but I have heard the crosses usually are better layers! How is your plan going?

 

[Karoo permaculture]

I think it's partially hybrid vigor, but moreso just knowing and being able to sort what you've hatched right away, plus the ability to simplify your brooding setup by marketing "guaranteed female chicks" and getting them out the door ASAP. There may still be chicks that don't sell right away, but it's less space and feed, and perhaps an earlier timeframe to start recouping costs.

But I'm speaking as someone who hasn't actually done this whole thing yet.

That would make sense to me from a hatchery perspective if you get rid of the females asap.

From this thread I dont see that, all are kept together until around 5 weeks and then only the females are sold. The NH are bigger and faster growing as meat birds. I dont see any benefit the delawares are adding, but that is why im asking because I might be missing something here.

 

[Karoo permaculture]

This is an update I did not want to make. A few weeks ago around dinner time a fox got into my chicken yard. They took out about 22 birds in no time, most of them the heritage birds I have been breeding and documenting in this thread. It was really hard to see all my hard work and ideas strewn in pieces across the yard. I have 11 birds left in my flock, and a few sex-link meaties left. A few of them are heritage. I also ordered another batch of NHs from freedom ranger to grow out and start breeding again next year.

I also just bought 200ft of hardware cloth and am in the process of skirting the entire yard. Hopefully that will fix the problem.

How is it going now?

 

[SheaLoner]

How is it going now?

Tre3hugger hasn't been on the site since January. I don't know if something happened to him or if it was just the loss of his flock to a bobcat. Hopefully he is doing well.